Tuesday, June 16, 2015

... all I'm attempting
to find out, I add quickly,
is the total cost ...
but both he and she maintain
their judgmental attitudes

it seems one's supposed
to simply buy their new product
and all the related
courses and literature,
no questions asked, no doubts

I start to wonder
if they even understand
much less believe in
it all themselves, but haul that
line of thinking up short

what matters is this
anxious doubting in my stomach
even as I'm drawn
to the mechanism's sleek,
steam iron-like, sci-fi design

should I take yet another dubious chance
on a hot new approach to old challenges

just how far am I willing to go this time
to try to iron out these crevasse sized wrinkles

[tanka series capped by two two-liners on a dream of 6-15-15. Photomorph "Blowing Off Steam" (5-27-15 005v4) by Roswila]

BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO DREAMKU (& PHOTOS):

But first, a request: please let me know of any typos or other sorts of blunders in my posts. As my eyes age I'm finding more mistakes are creeping into what I put up here no matter how many times I proof it all. Thanks for any help!

The dream-based poems posted on this blog -- dreamku, tanka, two-liners, monoku, free verse, dream narratives -- are offered in the spirit of collaboration. I have done my part. Now it’s your turn to jump in and see what comes up for you. I.e., there is no right or wrong way to relate to any of these dream offerings. Even my own understandings of them change over time. And it gives me joy when a reader sees something in any of them that I have not. (This all applies to any of the non-dream poems posted here, too.)

Also please note that a dream poem or narrative is not intended as an interpretation of a dream, or even a complete and accurate rendering of one. It is my attempt to get down dream imagery/action that grabs me and, as I write about it, elicits my conscious written association and response. Nor do I believe that one has to remember dreams in order for them to do their work. In my understanding, we are much more than our conscious selves.

You may also note in any further reading on dreamku (the specific forms of dreamku, tanka, two-liners and monoku) you may do here, that in the beginning I stressed "showing, not telling." However, this has been changing for some time. I now tend to "show" (the dream story) and cap if off with a "tell" (some reaction and/or insight I've had to the dream as I was writing about it). This also pretty much applies to my free verse dream poems as well. As to what I have begun calling dream narratives, they are a different animal, probably most akin to prose poems.

For more in-depth exploration of the dreamku forms specifically and one post in which I also address my photo choices:

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About Me

Retired, I'm grateful to indulge in daily blogging, taking digital photos, writing poetry every day, and other creative efforts as the spirit grabs me. I also enjoy reading my poems and sometimes improvising on one of the musical instruments in my collection (e.g. didjeridu or kalimba), in our retirement community's regular Talent Shows. And I also occasionally play a role in one of
our radio plays, written by a resident,
and read on stage as if an actual radio show.

"Ganesh dances joyfully,
each step out of now into now again;
each footprint filling to overflowing with kindness.
Remover of Obstacles, clear me out of my own way;
teach me how to dance lightly through life,
how to spill over with love." -- prayer by Roswila

"The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else." -- e.e. cummings (poet & painter)

"There's a thin line between dreaming and waking... The line is not hard and fast. It's more like passing through a waterfall. Really it's just a two sided organic system; on the surface individual blades of grass, underneath it's an intertwined mass of roots we can barely comprehend." -- As explained on the T.V. series FALLING WATER

"You're only paranoid if you're wrong." -- quoted in a play by Steven Dietz

"Fear is a natural reaction to moving closer to the truth." -- Pema Chodron

"The past is not dead, it is not even past." -- William Faulkner

"Art is the only way to run away without leaving home." -- Twyla Tharp (dancer/choreographer)

"Wisdom begins in wonder." -- Socrates

"Before the light which all things give off dies in the heart it must be expressed." -- Basho (haiku Master)

“The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well.” -- Alfred Adler

"For every expert, there is an equal and opposite expert" -- attributed to Arthur C. Clarke (author)

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." -- Richard Feynman (physicist)